ethanmartin (Student) Anki. Start building your deck in week one of first year. Don't wait until you're drowning in anatomy and biochem to figure out your retention system. The students who struggle here are almost always the ones who tried to read their way through it.
bmitchell (Student) Study groups were huge for me but you have to be selective. A bad study group will slow you down more than studying alone. Find two or three serious people and stick with them.
jnelson (Alumni) bmitchell (Student) covered the main points well. Pathoma and Sketchy together covered most of my pathology and micro. I barely touched the textbook after first semester. There's no prize for finishing Robbins.
zsharma (Alumni) Adding to bmitchell (Student) point. Take the NBMEs during basic sciences seriously even when they feel like just another school exam. They're telling you something real about where you'll land on Step 1.
christopherm (Alumni) Sleep and exercise actually matter here and not enough people say that. I watched classmates pull consecutive all-nighters and their shelf exam recall was noticeably worse than people who kept reasonable hours.
scottk (Student) Figure out early whether you're a morning or night studier and protect those hours. The island has a social pull especially in first semester and it's easy to lose more time than you realize.
mason_lopez (Student) Make a schedule and stick to it. The students I've seen crash the hardest are usually the ones who study reactively. Consistent hours beat cramming every time.
